Mastering The Marquess (Bound and Determined #1)(77)

Lady Ormande smiled, and her full ruby lips parted, revealing even white teeth. Her long red tongue slipped out, leaving a glisten spread across the lower lip.

Louisa had to fight not to stare.

“I was expecting almost this exact reaction, but I wanted you to know that I am here for you if you ever need a friend who understands. Being with a man like Geoffrey is not easy. You may love him—love what he does to you—but that will not make it easy. He does not want it to be easy. If it starts to become easy he will grow bored. No, you must always strive to do more—to take more. Tell me, has he brought out the whips? Or the candles and hot wax?” The Countess gave a little shiver. “Oh, the things you have to look forward to. And do you cry? Geoffrey always had a thing for tears.”

“I really must be going.” Gathering all her strength, Louisa pushed to stand, shaking off the Countess’s touch.

“So soon, and you have not even asked about my costume. I thought it quite clever.” The woman turned her head so that her eyes were level with Louisa’s breasts. She pursed her lips and blew, the hot, warm breath penetrating the fragile fabric and hitting Louisa’s nipples. Another wide smile.

“I do not believe this is the time to talk of costumes. And I do not see what is so clever about the Queen of Hearts.” Louisa wanted to bite back the last. Betraying weakness was a mistake. It would be best to hide all her disquiet from the Countess.

“Oh, but I am not the Queen of Hearts.” The Countess rose to standing also, almost, but not quite, brushing against Louisa’s full length. She reached out and grabbed Louisa’s hand, placing it first upon her pale, cool cheek and then sliding it up her oddly piled hair.

Louisa would have forcibly pulled free, but she was not yet ready to let matters escalate in such a fashion. She sensed that Lady Ormande would enjoy her rage. Far better to react calmly and leave.

“No guesses as to who I am?” the Countess asked.

Louisa held quiet.

Her hand was pulled higher, her fingers pushed into the strange hair. There was something hard there, hard and sharp. With a small cry she yanked her hand free. A single drop of blood stained the end of a finger.

“Oh dear. I am so sorry. My horns must have gotten you. I am the devil in disguise—but I meant no injury.”

Louisa doubted that was true. She turned to leave.

Her hand was grabbed one more time.

“Oh, but you must let me kiss it better,” the Countess said. And before Louisa could do anything about it, she found her finger being sucked deep into the Countess’s mouth, the warm tongue caressing, the teeth scraping.

That was no kiss.

Louisa yanked her hand back and hurried to the door, stopping only to grab her pomegranate and sheaf of wheat from the table where she’d dropped them.

“I am sorry you are so upset, my sweet Louisa.” Lady Ormande evidently required the last word. “But do remember I am here when you need advice—and you will need it. And don’t upset young Bliss; she meant only the best.”

Without reply Louisa slipped through the door, shutting it, and the Countess, firmly behind her.

If only it were possible to shut her mind as firmly from the Countess’s words.

Whips?





Chapter Twenty-three





“You really must stay away from her.” Swanston used every bit of trained command he was capable of as he looked down at his sister.

“Why?” Bliss’s lower lip jutted out just as it had when she was a child.

He had not wanted to give Bliss an ultimatum, but she clearly had no idea of the danger she was placing herself in.

“You must trust me. I know things that you do not.”

“Then tell me. Lady Ormande has been nothing but a friend to me. She wants to teach me. I see no reason to avoid her company,” Bliss replied.

“Have you ever considered that she is using you? That she wants something?” Why did his sister always have to be so obstinate? Couldn’t she just do as he said, even once?

“And why would she be doing that? She likes me. She says that I am fresh and young and so very fun. She understands me.”

“Do you believe everything you are told? You are young. Why would she find that interesting?” He should not have said that.

Bliss’s chin tilted up. “And what could she possibly have to gain by becoming my friend? She has never asked me for anything.”

“Perhaps it is not you she is after, but me. Lady Ormande and I have had disagreements in the past, and I believe she is using you to get at me.” There. That was simple enough.

“You always think it’s about you. I am never good enough and you are always perfect. Well, Lady Ormande has told me things and I know you are not the prince you pretend. That is why you don’t wish me with her, isn’t it? You are afraid of what she can tell me?”

Well, that was definitely true, but he doubted that his fears were anywhere near the magnitude of what Bliss was imagining. “What has she told you?”

“That is for me to know and you to find out.”

“You know, you sound like a child, and not a very nice one.”

“That is because you treat me like a child. I am almost twenty and have been out of the schoolroom for years. I am quite capable of choosing my own friends.”